Older cubers discussions

[mark49152]

So perhaps it's not so important to have clear visualization to be at the very top of multiBLD, considering the current official top 2 in the world claim they don't really do it?

Different approaches suit different people I guess, but my theory is that image-based memo is a mix of both.

Each scene has a sentence that helps me recall the correct words literally and retrieve the letter pairs. There is a rhythm to the sentence that helps a little with recall. Remembering lots of sentences accurately is hard, and vivid visualisation helps me recall every word, as well as to recall them in the correct rooms. But when recalling, I have to repeat the sentence back to extract the pairs. The sentence structure also helps me get the order of words right.

During the process of memo, the sentence comes first as I trace the pairs off the cube. It then takes a little time to visualise it vividly. When rushing memo, it's the visualisation step I tend to weaken most, which is OK for 3BLD but impacts my MBLD quite badly. (That is how I got such a poor result at Guildford, 12/20.)

 

[h2f]

@mark49152, @Mike Hughey I meant details in room when I put images/words. It's very interesting what you both write. I'm not sure how it works for me, if I feel better with words and sentences or with images. More often I do senteces but visualisation of them helps a lot. There's one more thing. I've heard that Kaijun memorize with certain order: word 1 connects with word 2; word 3 with word 4. And he puts it a one room. For example ANt takes Mona Lisa and SPider catches CoW - which makes 4 pairs. I'm not sure if he does it but I try to follow this rule for last 5 days and it easier for me to recall memo with it than if I do a sentences with no such order.

 

[40yearstosolve]

Yes, there's a lot of videos that fail to explain things properly. JPerm has many good videos, but I'm not a very big fan of his intuitive F2L tutorial. He goes through it way too quickly imo, especially for a beginner to follow.

@40yearstosolve, like someone here said earlier, it is very much worth it to start looking into F2L as soon as possible. For me, learning about intuitive F2L was the big aha-moment that got me properly interested in cubing. Until then I had been doing layer by layer, just like you are, and I had seen algorithm sheets for more advanced methods. Specifically a list that had something like 96 different algorithms for F2L. I felt I would never ever be able to learn something like that and hence thought I could never get fast. Then I watched one video on intuitive F2L, which showed that I don't need to know 96 or whatever cases, but only three. On top of that, I did not need to learn any algorithms to solve any of these three cases, they could all be solved intuitively. This was many years ago and I'm not 100% sure which video I watched, but I think it was this one:

Now when I watched it many years later, I see some things that I might have explained differently, but overall I think it is very good with slow and clear instructions. While I have developed quite a few tricks over the past couple of years to improve on F2L, they have all been developed from the basic principles taught in that video. Give it a shot and maybe it will also take your cubing to the next level. And of course feel free to ask if the video leaves something unclear.

Thank you JanW I will digest that video. Whilst I can see improvements in my speed using my layer by layer method (using elements of CFOP) I can definitely see it limiting me, because of the sheer number of moves - some native to CFOP and some due to my more manual repetitive approach.

I’ve attached my last few solves, sometimes I get lucky and do a sub 3 minute, but most often it hovers around four minutes.

I do have to remind myself it is amazing that I can solve it without any cheat sheets, sonfor that I am so pleased and still get a buzz each time I see six shiny single-coloured sides

I’ll definitely use that video JanW and I am extremely grateful for your taking the time thanks for that again

 

[mark49152]

There's one more thing. I've heard that Kaijun memorize with certain order: word 1 connects with word 2; word 3 with word 4. And he puts it a one room. For example ANt takes Mona Lisa and SPider catches CoW - which makes 4 pairs. I'm not sure if he does it but I try to follow this rule for last 5 days and it easier for me to recall memo with it than if I do a sentences with no such order.

Yeah that helps too. I use patterns like that, but have several options. I usually have 5 elements (letter pairs) per image. Sometimes it will be [1,2] does 3 to [4,5]. Example from yesterday: a [mannequin in an x-wing] hands a pie to a [hen on a loco]. Or sometimes [1,2] and [3,4] do 5. I suppose that's a by-product of sentence structure, but there's always a pattern, which helps with visualisation, and it often has a kind of rhythm too.

 

[newtonbase]

I can't remember if Tom Nelson's memo example got posted here. He makes it look very easy.

 

[mark49152]

3BLD PB... 38.15...! Try this, scrambled in your solving orientation: R2 L2 U2 L2 U' R2 D F2 U2 F2 U' R B R2 B R D' F R U2 R2

 

[h2f]

Yeah that helps too. I use patterns like that, but have several options. I usually have 5 elements (letter pairs) per image. Sometimes it will be [1,2] does 3 to [4,5]. Example from yesterday: a [mannequin in an x-wing] hands a pie to a [hen on a loco]. Or sometimes [1,2] and [3,4] do 5. I suppose that's a by-product of sentence structure, but there's always a pattern, which helps with visualisation, and it often has a kind of rhythm too.

I know what you mean. I do it for midges. For other targets I'll try to keep all in 4s excluding last image.

I can't remember if Tom Nelson's memo example got posted here. He makes it look very easy.

Yeah, thats very helpfull. After watching this I've started to add more details to my rooms.

3BLD PB... 38.15...! Try this, scrambled in your solving orientation: R2 L2 U2 L2 U' R2 D F2 U2 F2 U' R B R2 B R D' F R U2 R2

Wow. 33.66 - first 3bld for weeks with my shitty comms for edges like y' [U' R2 U, M] because I used to do it for wings. Sad I cant count it.

 

[newtonbase]

3BLD PB... 38.15...! Try this, scrambled in your solving orientation: R2 L2 U2 L2 U' R2 D F2 U2 F2 U' R B R2 B R D' F R U2 R2

Fast DNF. Used comms for all corners but made a memo error.

 

[SpartanSailor]

3BLD PB... 38.15...! Try this, scrambled in your solving orientation: R2 L2 U2 L2 U' R2 D F2 U2 F2 U' R B R2 B R D' F R U2 R2

I just did the scramble... wow! I’ll save that for later and see what happens.

 

[muchacho]

I'll try to get (this year) a sub-20 Ao5 in OH on film, it won't be easy. This is a 23.595 average, I think I shared a video with a 26.483 Ao5, but that was 11 months ago.

Spoiler

13130 19-jun-2018 13:58:25 00:21.407 U' L2 U' R2 F2 D2 L2 U' L2 U B2 L F' D' R' F L' D U2 R F2 U'
13129 19-jun-2018 13:57:46 00:23.334 R2 L2 D R2 F2 D' B2 U2 F2 R2 U L' D2 F' R B L F' U F R' U2
13128 19-jun-2018 13:57:00 00:28.925 U F2 R2 D L2 D B2 D' L2 U2 B' R U B' L' B' R2 B F2 L U2
13127 19-jun-2018 13:56:12 00:26.046 U B2 U L2 D' U' B2 R2 L2 D' B2 L U2 R D2 U F' R L' D L' U'
13126 19-jun-2018 13:55:33 00:19.967 B2 F2 R2 F2 D' B2 D2 F2 U2 R2 U' R' U2 R U' F R' U L' D R2 U'

 

[Logiqx]

@muchacho - Nice video. Our styles are so different!

- Right-handed Roux with table abuse and custom colour scheme
- Left-handed CFOP without table abuse and standard colour scheme

I'll set the same goal... sub-20 Ao5 on film this year.

 

[SpartanSailor]

Today’s 5 attempts at 3BLD were pretty good. (See below). csTimer didn’t add the splits into the export/copy but they were all around 3 mins +/- 15 seconds for memo. Lots of room for improvement. At this point, I’m still getting comfortable with M2 edges, but that seems to be coming along. Overall, I’d say I’m pleased with these times and don’t feel like I was pushing too much. 3/5 is better than yesterday (4/10) and that #3 DNF would have been a success if I didn’t fumble the cube in my second to last corner. It was off by a couple weird turns, which I could tell was the fumbling about.

1. 4:29.62 B2 L2 F' R B' D2 R2 U B L' D' B2 D R2 L2 D F2 U2 F2 Rw' Uw
2. 5:33.27 D2 U L2 R2 B2 D' R2 U L2 U2 L U' B R2 F' R F' U2 R2 F' Rw
3. DNF(4:17.93)[Got excited and had another cube twist while in hand moment. ] R F2 L F2 R' U2 L' F2 R D2 F2 B' D U B' D' F' R2 U L' U2 Uw'
4. 4:19.09 L2 D' F2 D' U2 L2 B2 D' L2 F2 D' F' R2 U' L R2 B L' R' B L2 Rw
5. DNF(4:59.42) B' L2 U2 F D2 B' L2 D2 L2 U2 F2 R B' F D' B' U L R U F' Uw'

Using csTimer, when you look at my last 3BLD from last night being a success, getting the first two success today gave me my first Mean of 3 with 3 success in a row. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. If so, I certainly didn’t notice it that way.

If I can do 5 attempts a day, I think I should have a good shot at sub-5 min success next weekend, June 30, at my next comp. Heck, if I get a good scramble or have a first attempt success, I could maybe even get a sub-4, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself... For now, I’ll feel good with 60% success today. The comp only give 10 total minutes, so if I do take 4-5 minutes on the first (and get a success), there’s no reason to play it safe for the second attempt. May as well, reduce my review and just let it rip!

Edit to add:
I did do that scramble from Jae earlier.... because I had seen it briefly and could remember that 3 bottom cross pieces were already in place, I didn’t time it for an “official attempt” today. Good thing too, because despite it’s apparent simplicity I found a way to completely get it wrong.

 

[openseas]

@SpartanSailor / great progress!

Did you guys notice this?
Since when cstimer changed the option to include your WCA ID?
Wondering what will be the benefit to link to WCA ID? Interesting change!!!

 

[SpartanSailor]

@SpartanSailor / great progress!

Did you guys notice this?
Since when cstimer changed the option to include your WCA ID?
Wondering what will be the benefit to link to WCA ID? Interesting change!!!

View attachment 9231

I didn’t realise that was a new add. I’ve only started using csTimer because I wanted splits for BLD. But now, I’m a fan.

I DID notice that when I tried to export some data, but didn’t know what that was about or what functionality that provided.

Interesting...

 

[One Wheel]

@SpartanSailor / great progress!

Did you guys notice this?
Since when cstimer changed the option to include your WCA ID?
Wondering what will be the benefit to link to WCA ID? Interesting change!!!

View attachment 9231

It changed a couple of weeks ago. There is some discussion about it in the cstimer thread. I haven't been able to get it to work, but I was hoping I understood correctly that it just works as an identifier, so you can import/export between multiple devices. I'd like to be able to figure out how to track my feet times with the rest of my times.

 

[cubeshepherd]

@SpartanSailor / great progress!

Did you guys notice this?
Since when cstimer changed the option to include your WCA ID?
Wondering what will be the benefit to link to WCA ID? Interesting change!!!

View attachment 9231

Since you were wondering when the Cstimer change came to be, here is the Cstimer thread that has the info on it: https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/threads/cstimer-released.36236/page-30.
The post with the info is #598 on page 30.

Edit: Looks like @One Wheel answered is first, so you can ignore mine, but by the time you read this you will most likely have already read what I have above.

 

[openseas]

@One Wheel & @cubeshepherd / Thanks. Make sense - being able to use same time/setup/records from multiple devices.

 

[h2f]

Nice @SpartanSailor. You can also make a day brake and see what happens.

 

[newtonbase]

MBLD 8/9 in 54:48 (39:54). Equal to PB on points. Most cubes solved. One flipped edge missed that I saw on first memo but not in review. This felt very comfortable.
I think I'll only do one more full attempt before comp on the 30th. Probably on Monday so I'm fresh. 9 cube attempt is looking favourite (if they let me compete)

 

[mark49152]

MBLD 8/9 in 54:48 (39:54). Equal to PB on points. Most cubes solved. One flipped edge missed that I saw on first memo but not in review. This felt very comfortable.
I think I'll only do one more full attempt before comp on the 30th. Probably on Monday so I'm fresh. 9 cube attempt is looking favourite (if they let me compete)

Nice job. Any news on the waiting list?

Did another 18/20 today, again in 56 mins. Slower memo but I rushed exec. 20 feels like quite a comfortable number now.